"It’s not about fame, success or hanging out in the right places… you don’t have to be on T4 everyday glad handing so much to get somewhere."

2004 was a boom or bust year for indie music in the UK. The Libertines, lauded as one of the most significant, generation defining bands since The Clash, had suffered a very public demise at the histrionic hands of the tabloid newspapers, with the NME turning into a weekly publication satirising Pete Doherty’s downfall, drug addiction and imprisonment.

North of the river, Yorkshire was spitting out its own DIY scene as MySpace gripped a generation of music fans in a state of paralysis. The New Yorkshire scene mirrored that which was brooding in London: the bands worked hard to build on local support, playing any piss-laden pub, club and venue in order to reach out to fans new and old – The Cribs were at the forefront of the flourishing sphere.

“I don’t know if it’s a Yorkshire things or what, but we started off by playing a lot of small gigs in small venues and really got to know a lot of our fans,” explained Ryan Jarman. “I think that those people who were into us then, or have seen us over the years, have some kind of sense of involvement with the band.”

“It’s just like a grassroots connection,” continued his twin brother Gary, “That was the whole point. It was just a case of touring and having it build up over time. We weren’t necessarily dogmatic about playing small venues, that’s something that we do now and just for fun, but it was more a case of playing wherever we could any night of the week – just no heirs and graces – and it just built up over time. Like Ryan said, your fans feel an involvement with the band and they sort of know where you came from really.”

September 7th saw the release of their fourth studio album Ignore The Ignorant – their first with new band mate Johnny Marr, and one of the most highly anticipated records of the year. Everything appears to be a far cry away from the “grassroots” of which they speak. Are they worried that they may be losing their initial connection with their fans?

“That was the first tour we ever did,” explained Gary. “Hull has always been really good for us: the people there kind of typify our fans. We used to go and play there when other bands didn’t, and I think that they appreciated it and held us quite dear after that.

“We’ve been doing bigger shows for a while now. If you try and retain integrity it hopefully shouldn’t matter, and I don’t think that people should begrudge you that more people want to see you play. It’s not a status thing – it’s just that more people want to see us. We still do what we can on a more intimate scale…”

The now four-piece have spent the weekend doing the “theoretical side of things”, being backslapped by industry types ahead of the album’s release and undergoing numerous interviews. Sunday night (September 6th), however, was spent doing the practical side of things, as they showcased their new material in front of a few hundred fans at the Camden Barfly.

“We always stick fan friendly stuff in whenever we can. We’ll never lose that, but even at the bigger shows, we don’t hide behind a big production and put on a big cheesy rock shows, it’s still exactly the same and it still feels quite intimate and raw just purely because we don’t get up there and act like rock stars. If we did that, we would worry about a backlash and losing fans. We’re always concerned about trying not to alienate our fans from us, so when we do these bigger rooms we still make sure that it is as stripped back as much as possible.”

“That’s mainly down to our own ethic, and I think that our fans share that,” continued Gary. “We don’t try and do it to plicate anything or anyone. That’s an important thing to us, and I think that it is something that is missing these days.

"It’s totally fine if your intentions are to become a ‘chart band’, but when people try to associate themselves with these things that they have nothing in common with, that’s just a little bit galling really."

Turning the page, the inclusion of Marr has brought a new dialogue of colour and evolution to their sound. Ignore The Ignorant sees Marr and the Jarman brothers taming and maturing the idiosyncratic punk discordance of their earlier effort with a hefty amount of harmony and musicality. There is a fluency to their song writing and album structure now thanks to the newly recruited, but it is still undoubtedly a Cribs record – it just has a little more credibility and experience in its detail.

“I think that that’s what we are most proud of,” explained Gary, “the fact that you can still hear Johnny’s influence, but it still sounds like The Cribs. Every record has seen a bit of a natural progression: we have been pushing things that little bit further every time. We actually like what the band does, so we never felt like we had to change. And that’s what we are most happy about, the fact that it hasn’t messed with the integrity of the band too much, but it’s evident that there has been an influence.”

“I was such a fan of his guitar playing,” gushed Ryan. “It’s weird, because he just feels so much like a part of the band now that we don’t really think about it anymore.”

“He’s in for the foreseeable future,” concludes Gary. We’re talking about the next record already and he’s as much a member of the band as everyone else at this point. It’s a full time thing right now.”

And what of Marr’s comments about ‘Ignore The Ignorant’ being a political album? Is this something that is whole band stand behind?

They both shake their heads and raise a wry smile. “Nah, it’s more personal politics really,” explains Gary. “We were kind of disappointed that people misconstrued us. I guess there was a quote that was a little misleading though. We don’t want to down play it and say there is no element of politics to it, but it would be misleading to say that it’s a political record because it really isn’t. If anyone hears the songs they are not stark statements; they’re relatively cryptic, personal things.

“We just write about things that we know. I know a lot of people say that, but it’s the truth. I don’t know enough about politics to wade in on it, and to be honest, it’s not that I don’t care about it, but I would rather keep it separate from the music that we are doing. It would be misrepresentative of my personality to pretend that I had any sort of agendas to get across.”

Since their inception, The Cribs have faired well with the press. Their music was tagged as a ‘British rearguard’ to the new wave of popular US indie bands such as The Strokes that undulated across the Atlantic at the time. Music aside, however, they have made alternative headlines in recent rants about ‘careerist indie bands’ that flood the charts, lambasting the industry and ingratiating eager hacks with their outspoken comments and quotes.

“I think you just might as well do it you know,” Gary admits openly. “I think a lot of people think it, especially people from our background. We come from quite a DIY indie scene and it’s strange that we find ourselves in a position now with a lot of bands that sort of exist and don’t have the same values, background and ethos as us. When we find ourselves being lumped in with them we just wanted to distance ourselves from it all for accuracy’s sake.”

Ryan sighs, “We are a much different band to a lot of those that we were lazily lumped in with. The things that we value highest aren’t success or fame or anything like that, we just want to make good records that we are proud of and that’s the only agenda. It felt weird that people were always saying that we were slagging other bands off because we weren’t. We weren’t being self-righteous…”

“We were just trying to set the record straight,” interjects Gary. “We didn’t have anything against these bands personally, it’s just the fact that it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing you know. It’s totally fine if your intentions are to become a ‘chart band’, but when people try to associate themselves with these things that they have nothing in common with, that’s just a little bit galling really. It took us a long time to get where we are on our terms and it just feels weird when people try to make out that they are something different to what they are.”

“It feels like a bit of a victory, and that’s what makes it worthwhile,” boasted Gary. “It’s not about fame, success or hanging out in the right places… you don’t have to be on T4 everyday glad handing so much to get somewhere, and it’s strange that that’s where things are now. I don’t think it can be that much fun for a lot of new bands to be thrust straight into that world. We were lucky enough in the fact that we were largely ignored by that lot when we were putting our first two records out and I’m glad; had be have been thrust straight into that world from the start, we would have probably broken up.”

The self-satisfaction of doing it all on their own terms and circumnavigating the celebrity sphere in the same notion has left them with their ethics intact. They are willing to play the game, but only within the realms of their own law and DIY lore. So what are their hopes for the new album?

“Whenever we make an album, all we want to do is be better than the last,” Ryan explained humbly. “I mean… we don’t care about where it charts. I don’t listen to chart music, so it’s not a great concern, but as long as people think it’s a good record then that’s good you know – we’re pleased with that. But if it does chart, it’s just nice to know that it’s on our own terms you know.”

“It’s just nice to be here and in this situation after having done all the groundwork ourselves,” continued Gary. “It means that we have bypassed a lot of that money that has to be spent by other people.”

Five years on and The Cribs are still rattling around the country in the same van that they started out in. Unlike many bands that suffered the initial hyperbole of generation defining ingenuity of the media at the time of their genesis, they have remained a staple of the UK’s burgeoning indie scene. They have evolved on their own terms and their DIY ethic and approach to a rather austere industry compiled by cruel and shallow money trenches has helped them deconstruct success in order to tailor it to their needs. More importantly, they still remain in contact with their fans – the source of their success, and the only people they aim to please. Ignore The Ignorant has so far pleased the critics, and it will surely please those who matter most.

"It’s just nice to be here and in this situation after having done all the groundwork ourselves.It means that we have bypassed a lot of that money that has to be spent by other people."